MobileActive.org

With the push to better school results in mathematics, science, and technology related subjects, often language education is moved into the background. In Africa, however, education is often not in the mother tongue of the learners. Pupils are in a position where they are trying to learn complicated subjects such as science and mathematics in a language which is not their home language. In some African countries, there are dozens if not hundreds of languages. Hadeda is a project where primary school pupils (and even secondary school pupils) are encouraged to practice spelling words or vocabulary words using their cell phone. Hadeda allows the language teacher to create spelling lists or vocabulary lists in English and Afrikaans. Hadeda then generates a fun cell phone application using multiple text-to-speech engines to encourage pupils to practice spelling the words.

In many developing countries such as India and China, low educational levels often hinder economic empowerment. In this paper, we argue that mobile learning games can play an important role in the Chinese literacy acquisition process. We report on the unique challenges in the learning Chinese language, especially its logographic writing system. Based on an analysis of 25 traditional Chinese games currently played by children in China, we present the design and implementation of two culturally inspired mobile group learning games, Multimedia Word and Drumming Strokes. These two mobile games are designed to match Chinese children’s understanding of everyday games. An informal evaluation reveals that these two games have the potential to enhance the intuitiveness and engagement of traditional games, and children may improve their knowledge of Chinese characters through group learning activities such as controversy, judgments and self-correction during the game play.